Echo Creek's New Teacher
by Julian Todd
Summary: After failing to save his best friend, Sam Price, a middle-aged veteran, was sick of life. Content spending the remainder of his days drinking away his sorrows, Sam was not ready for an old enemy to come back into his life and force him to move forward. Now armed with newfound purpose, he has no choice but to become a teacher at Echo Creek Academy and discover the secrets of magic.
1. Chapter 1

"Jay, you have to go!" Sam yelled over the sound of gunfire and explosions going off in the background. He tried to suppress the grimace of pain fighting to make its way onto his face as the piece of shrapnel lodged in his leg decided to take this particular moment to remind him of its presence. Based on the look on Jay's face, he did a piss poor job of it.

"I'm not leaving you!" Jay yelled, trying futilely to put him on his back. Unfortunately for both of them, Jay's left arm was in almost as bad shape as Sam's leg.

"There's no time for this!" Sam shouted back, desperation coloring his voice. He pointed to the group of children huddled in the corner of the room. They stared back wide-eyed. "You've got to evac the kids! I won't let them die because of me!"

"But—"

"No, buts! Get them out of here!"

Jay hesitated for a second, staring into Sam's eyes. Sam watched as various emotions flitted through his friend's deep brown orbs before finally settling on determination. Jay closed his eyes and, after a short moment, nodded gravely. "Alright... Is there anything—"

"No time for this, just go!" Sam desperately yelled, fighting off a wave of dizziness to give him a small punch on the shoulder. Sam smiled as the blow seemed to wake Jay up. He started moving in earnest, herding the children towards the evac point. As he exited the room, he sent one last heartbroken look in Sam's direction. Not wanting Jay's last memory of him to be of his despairing over his fate, Sam smiled and gave him a cheeky thumbs up. The hurt on Jay's face didn't dissipate a bit at Sam's attempt to lighten the mood, but it didn't matter. An instant later, he rounded the corner and was gone. The moment Jay was gone, he dropped the smile, letting his exhausted body drop to the floor.

_I'm so fucking tired... _Sam thought as his eyelids drooped closed. _Still, not a terrible way to die. Sacrificing myself to save a friend and some kids. Probably better than I deserve to be honest. _

After an undetermined amount of time, Sam heard the chopper taking off in the distance. Using the last bit of his energy, Sam crawled over the wall and propped himself up against it. He wanted to see the chopper get away. Make sure that their mistakes would be fixed. For a few seconds, he saw nothing but the flaming wreck that had once been a bustling city.

Despite desperately wanting to avert his eyes from the disaster unfolding in front of him, Sam forced himself to hold steady. He'd have plenty of time to rest when he was dead. Eventually, his vigil was rewarded with the sight of chopper rising up.

Sam checked his watch. Still two minutes left. They were going to make it.

**BOOM**.

Sam's eyes shot up from his watch just in time to catch the fireball that had once been the chopper drop out of the sky.

"No... Why?" Sam gasped, suddenly wide awake. Using a reserve of energy he didn't realize he had, he crawled up to the window and drew himself high enough to look down at the flaming mess.

Despair slowly flooded through him as he stared at the wreck, brain unable to catch up with the sight before him. How was this possible? They'd taken out all the AA, he was sure of it. How...? A hidden weapon cache they'd missed?

He must have stared at the wreck in a daze for at least a few minutes because, in the distance, the first bomb dropped, lighting up the sky. It was time.

So he wasn't even going to get his heroic end, after all. A small painful laugh forced its way out of his throat as the second bomb dropped, getting ever closer.

_A chopper full of kids goes down, and I make it all about me and my ending. Typical. God, I'm such a piece of shit._

Sam watched as bomb after bomb dropped. Finally, one dropped close enough to blow up the glass window he was looking through, knocking him back onto the floor.

As his vision faded to black, one last simple thought managed to overwhelm all others.

_Fuck this shit._

* * *

"HEY! I'M NOT DRUNK!" Carl yelled as Sam watched the bouncer pull him out of the bar. "YA HEAR! NOT DRUNK!" He turned and stared right at Sam. "Sammy, help a brother out, will ya! Tell 'em!"

Sam glanced over at Carl, who was by now desperately holding onto the doorframe as the bouncer did his best to force him out the door. Everyone left in the bar turned to look at Sam, laughing at his misfortune. Sam, for his part, just rolled his eyes at the display. "Carl, if you don't want to get kicked out of a bar, how about you don't piss out in the open?"

"Not my fault they put such a fine-looking toilet out there," Carl groused as he continued to cling onto the doorframe. "I felt it calling to me. I mean, why else was it just sitting there? Who just puts a toilet out in the open?"

"That was a vase, you fucking drunk moron," the bouncer said from outside. "Now, let go of the damn doorframe and get the fuck out of here!"

"Well, why'd they get a vase that looks so much like a toilet then?" Carl complained.

As Carl continued to fight to stay in the bar, a new patron walked up to the bar.

_Sunglasses indoors and hood up... Man, this guy think he's a famous actor or something? _Sam suppressed the urge to shake his head as he turned back to his drink. As usual, his body complained, sending a shot of searing pain running up his spine. Ignoring the now-familiar sensation, Sam lifted his beer to his lips and took a long slow drink.

As he put his drink down, the new arrival came over and sat right next to him at the bar. Sam lifted a brow quizzically at him. The bar wasn't exactly crowded, and the man had had plenty of seating choices other than the one he'd chosen.

Sam shook his head lightly, forcing his tired brain to focus on the new arrival.

_No, I was wrong. Definitely not a wannabe celeb. _Sam decided as he studied the man that had decided to invade his personal space. _Something about that posture a bit too stiff for that... And the way he's angling his body in such a way that he can see all the entrances to the room... I do that same thing. Military background, maybe? _

"So, this what passes for an exciting night for you nowadays, Sammy?" The man said, looking up and whipping off the sunglasses to reveal a familiar smirk. "Got to tell you, Sam, retirement doesn't seem to be treating you too good."

Vinny Collins. A regular in his recurring nightmares. He looked the same as ever. Good-looking in a sort of classic Italian way. Salt and pepper hair slicked back—though Sam thought he noticed a bit more salt and less pepper than the last time he'd seen him—and clean-shaven thin face.

And he was sitting here. In his bar. The fucking nerve on this guy.

"Collins!" Sam growled, barely managing to suppress the urge to jump over the bar and strangle the man. With the state of his body, that was sure to end badly for him. As it was, he decided to settle with just putting his good hand on the gun he kept holstered in his jacket. Just in case. "What the fuck are you doing here? Thought I made it pretty clear the last time we talked that I was out."

"You did, you did," Vinny said, raising his hands defensively. "I just figured that two years might have dulled your resolve a bit."

Sam didn't even dignify that with a proper response. He just growled menacingly.

That son of a bitch Vinny just raised his arms placatingly and laughed. "Fine, fine. Truth is, it just so happens that you happen to be perfect for a job I need to do."

Sam just stared at him, having trouble figuring out what was more shocking—the fact that this human-shaped pile of trash had the gall to talk to him or that he felt like he needed a cripple like him.

"Alright, I'm only going to say this once." Sam narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his shotgun. "Get the fuck out of my bar. I never want to see your face ever again."

"Come on, man! Just hear me out!" Vinny said with a pleading expression. "You know that I wouldn't come to you if I didn't feel like I needed your help!"

Sam just glared at him silently, waiting for him to realize that he had no intention of giving in to his simpering smile. Unfortunately for him, Vinny was nothing if not persistent.

"Look, Sam, buddy, don't you want to know what's going on it your town?" Vinny said, leaning forward. "Cuz, believe it or not, something pretty damn interesting is happening here."

"Something's happening here? Something you're interested in?" Sam said, interested despite himself.

"Yup. Crazy, right?" Vinny said with an exaggerated sigh. "I mean, this isn't exactly the middle of nowhere, but it's not exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find me in either, right?"

Understatement of the year. Vinny Collins could usually only be found in the center of the biggest conflicts in the world. Karachi, Beirut, Tehran, sure, but Echo Creek, California? It was beyond strange.

"You've got thirty seconds," Sam finally said.

"Great! So, a few days ago, at the local high school, some interesting things happened." Vinny reached into this hoodie pocket and pulled out a folder. Opening it, he revealed pictures of what looked like a carriage being pulled by some weird lion/lizard hybrid, a girl waving what looked like a pink magic wand around and creating a flaming rainbow, and a bunch of monsters attacking that same girl outside a convenience store.

"What am I looking at here?" Sam said, as he closely scrutinized the pictures. "Pictures of a movie being shot here?"

"Not quite," Vinny said, shaking his finger knowingly. "No, what you're looking at is real magic."

"Real magic?" Sam scoffed. "You've got ten seconds left. Don't waste your time with jokes."

Vinny laughed. "I'm being straight with you, man! Real magic."

Sam furrowed his brow and took another look at the photos. The one constant in all the photos was a blond teen, maybe 14 or 15 years old, by the looks of it. She was also the one carrying around the wand looking object.

"You think this girl can do real magic," Sam stated deadpan.

"We know she can," Vinny answered, equally deadpan.

Sam stared at the photos for a few more seconds before heaving a tired sigh. "Alright, so let's say that I actually believed that this girl could do magic. What exactly do you want me to do about it? I'm not exactly able-bodied anymore."

Sam rapped his left arm with his right fist, causing a dull sort of plasticky sound to ring out.

"Doesn't matter for this job. We just need you to become a teacher at Echo Creek Academy, where she goes to school." Vinny plastered a slimy smile on his face that was probably meant to be charming. "Get her trust. Figure out what she's up to. You were born and raised here. Even used to be a teacher. It's the perfect cover because it's real. No eyebrows raised if you suddenly get hired to teach a class here in case her backers are watching."

"Figured she must have backers or you would have just grabbed her off the street as soon as you found out about her," Sam said, giving Vinny a cold glare. "So who is her backer then? A terrorist organization? Another Country?"

"No idea," Vinny said with a shrug. "That's what we want you to figure out."

"So you'll know if it's worth pissing them off to kidnap the girl," Sam said in disgust. "What in the hell makes you think I'd help you ever again after what happened last time?"

"I just think that you're a good man. A good man with a soft spot for children." Vinny shook his head. "If you don't accept the job, I'll have no choice but to go to someone else. Someone without that soft spot." Vinny tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I think the higher-ups wanted Emilia for this job originally before I remembered that this job happened to be in your hometown. I don't think I need to tell you what would happen if she was the one chosen, now do I?"

Sam shuddered. Emilia was a viper. She was willing to just about anything to reach her goals. Torture, murder, seduction, blackmail... nothing was beyond her. Though Sam supposed that could be said about pretty much any of Vinny's operators. What set Emilia apart, however, was how sadistic she was. Where most other operators would do what they had to do, Emilia enjoyed toying with people. As a result, almost all of her jobs ended up with the people involved getting hurt, one way or another. Not only that, her acting ability was one of a kind. Even Sam hadn't been immune to her deceptions, despite knowing what she was like ahead of time.

"You scumbag, you'd send Emilia to work on a _kid_?!" Sam spit out.

"It's not really up to me, you know. Well, that and she _is_ the best," Vinny said with another shrug, acting as if it wasn't his problem.

Sam stared at Vinny, his fist opening and closing as he considered everything that he'd said. He'd sworn to himself that he wouldn't let himself get caught up in Vinny's schemes ever again. Not after what had happened last time. And yet, here he was, seriously considering doing the job.

He checked his watch and sighed. "I've taken up way more than my thirty seconds, and I can see that I wasted both our time here. I guess that there's nothing that I can do to convince you to come back." Vinny got up, grabbing the folder of photos and stuffing it back in his hoodie pocket. "It was nice catching up. You've got my number. Call me if you change your mind."

Vinny tossed his card onto the bar in front of Sam and started slowly walking towards the door.

It was all for show. The threat to send Emilia, leaving now, his slow casual walk, all of it. Sam knew it. And yet... He just couldn't let it happen. Couldn't let there be even a chance in hell that Emilia would be sent after this poor kid. Shit.

"Collins gets your ass back here," Sam growled, impotent frustration flooding through him.

"Oh my, did you change your mind already?" Vinny said, a broad smile on his face. He walked back over and sat back down, waiting for Sam to initiate the conversation.

"Fuck you," Sam said. "You knew that I'd accept."

"Guilty as charged. My job is to get people to do things they don't want to do, and I'm pretty good at my job."

Sam closed his eyes and did his best to suppress the desire to whip out the pistol and blow the slimy prick head clean off. It would be so easy. Just a quick pull of a trigger and boom! Bye-bye Vinny. Unfortunately, as satisfying as that would be in the moment, all it would lead to was jail time for him and Vinny's boss replacing him with another stooge. Then the kid would be in trouble again, and he wouldn't be in a position to help her.

Once he managed to regain his composure, he opened his eyes and turned a markedly calmer gaze at the still grinning Vinny.

"I'll take the job on one condition."

"Oh?" Vinny sat up straighter and looked him in the eye.

"I don't want to see a single other operator anywhere near Echo Creek. If I'm going to do this job, I'll do it my way."

"Don't want backup do we?" Vinny said with a smirk. "Fair enough, you always were a bit of a lone wolf." Vinny pulled a different folder out of his hoodie pocket. How did he fit all these folders in there without bending them all? "I figured you'd probably accept, so I went ahead and got you the job. You start as the new Math teacher on Monday. Good luck!"

Without another word, Vinny spun around and walked out of the bar. This time he didn't take his time and was soon gone. The instant he disappeared, the tension drained out of Sam's body, and he let himself slump onto the bar. Sam massaged his temple as a familiar ache in his head signaled the arrival of a migraine.

_How did I get involved with Collins again? I promised myself I'd never let it happen again, and yet here I am..._

Sam let out an exasperated sigh. God, this was going to suck. With a heavy heart, he opened up the folder and got to work studying his new target, Star Butterfly.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam gasped, sitting up with a start. Cold sweat streamed down his back as he looked around warily, trying to get his bearings. Where...?

_Home, _the logical part of his brain, provided. _Echo Creek, California. Just my regular old shitty apartment._

Unfortunately, the not so logical part of his brain—which at the moment was most of it—refused to accept that answer. It kept pushing him to check every dark corner for hidden assassins. Under his bed for IEDs.

_Stop. Breath._ Sam thought, forcing his mind to reorient itself. He took a deep rasping breath, then another. From experience, he knew that there was no easy way to stop his brain from spinning in circles when he got like this. The best thing he could do was try his best to get air to his oxygen-starved brain.

After a few minutes, he finally managed to get his breathing under control, and from there, the rest of the symptoms slowly abated.

_What a lovely way to start the day... _Sam thought with a sigh as he ran a hand over his sweat-soaked scalp. Sighing to himself, he slowly rolled out of bed and sat up, wincing at the pain his broken body gave him. He glanced over at his phone, sitting on his nightstand. 4:45. Better than usual.

Sam grabbed a cane lying against his nightstand and slowly hopped over to the bathroom, intent on taking a shower. As he passed the mirror, he paused as his reflection caught his attention.

Sam grimaced, revulsion hitting like a physical punch in the gut like it always did when he saw the state of his body. And yet, for some reason, he just couldn't look away. He stared at his reflection entranced.

Dark sunken brown eyes stared back, the thick bags underneath betraying the fact that he didn't sleep much anymore. His once bronze tanned skin had turned a sort of pale, almost ghostly white from his extended stay at the hospital and the rehab after. A long scar ran vertically from the bottom of the right side of his face up into his hairline. On the other side of his head, a much lighter scar—nearly nothing but a faint white line at this point—circled his left eye in a sort of crescent shape.

His dark brown hair was cropped short, revealing a few additional scars on his skull. His chest and stomach were much the same, except instead of straight scars from the glass that had ripped apart his body, large swathes of the skin there were covered in sunken shiny looking burn scars.

His left hand and right leg were gone starting at just below the elbow and above the knee, leaving nothing but nubs at the end. A twinge of phantom pain from the missing limbs broke him out of his revelry, and he finally managed to tear his gaze away.

He hated looking at himself like this. It just reminded him how... broken he was.

The doctors had called him a miracle. Sam just thought of himself as a dead man walking. With how much scar tissue there was in his body, he doubted he would live to old age. Probably for the best since his body already felt far older than it had any right to considering he was barely into his early thirties. He didn't even want to imagine what his body would feel like in a few years.

Sam shook his head, hobbling the rest of the way to the shower. He immediately turned the water on, letting the still cold shower shock him awake.

_Enough self-pity_, he thought as he let the slowly warming water wash away his morning fugue. _Starting today, I've got a new job to do. Keeping Collins and his group of scumbags from that kid._

Fifteen minutes later, Sam was done with his shower. He hopped out of the shower, carefully drying his body before grabbing his prosthetics. He pulled them on, rigorously testing each to make sure that they were set correctly. He definitely didn't need his arm or leg to fall off during his first day at Echo Creek Academy.

Job done, Sam quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a purple sweater, forgoing his formerly preferred suit and tie look for more casual attire. Ever since he'd recovered to the point of being independent, he'd started hiding his disabilities as much as possible. That meant a beanie on his head to hide the scars there, gloves for his prosthetic, and never wearing shorts. That still left his facial scars visible, but there wasn't much he could do about that bearing wearing a mask, so he just kind of lived with it.

Besides, having a thin scar on your face and a slight limp didn't garner half as many pitying looks as missing limbs. Instead, it was usually more nervous or disgusted looks. Those he could live with. The pity though... that was another story.

_Alright, good enough. _Sam said after studying his image for any flaws. He glanced up at the clock. Still over an hour before he needed to leave. _Guess I'll do one last review of the target._

Sam walked over to his closet and quickly opened up his safe. He pulled out the folder that Vinny had given him a few days back, along with a flash drive that had appeared at his apartment door last night. He brought the two items back to the desk and opened up the folder. Inside was a list of all the staff at the school, along with whatever information Vinny's people had managed to dig up about them.

He was going to be meeting with the principal of the school—a man named Edward Bonner-Skeeves—that morning, so he focused on that entry. Skimming over it for potential weaknesses, Sam zeroed in on his financials. From what he could tell, Skeeves was a man with a certain fondness for money, so that was probably the way to convince him to do what he wanted. It also seemed like he had a record of having accepted bribes in the past, including one to fast-track the acceptance of his target—Star Butterfly—into the school in the first place. And based on his recent reported spending and bank account balance, it seemed likely that it was a hefty bribe at that. Interesting.

Moving on from the financials, he focused on likes, dislikes, personality quirks. He quickly scanned all the other names and information that he'd been given. Once he was satisfied with the review, Sam moved on to the flash drive. He quickly popped it into his computer and loaded it up.

Before he could do anything, a popup window came up asking for a password. Sam sighed and entered the password, _On3lastj0b_. Hilarious. Fucking Vinny.

Just like he had last night, Sam scrutinized up the pictures of what was apparently real magic. They didn't have much magic actually captured on camera yet. There were a few candid shots from different angles of a carriage being pulled by monstrous lion-dragon things, a few shots of a burning rainbow floating above the magical girl—Star he reminded himself—at the school, and, the pièce de résistance, security cam footage from a convenience store of her fighting monstrous looking humanoids with magic.

As he studied the security cam footage, Sam's heartbeat sped up again, as it had every time he watched it. There, on the screen, was Star Butterfly, spinning around shooting rainbows, narwhals, hearts, and other absurd cutesy things at the monsters.

Could it really be true? Could magic really exist? If it did, what were the limitations? Could there be a whole world out there that just out of sight that they'd never known about?

And, a small voice inside asked the question most important to him: _can magic fix me?_

An alarm suddenly went off on Sam's phone, startling him out of his trance. Whoa, 6:45 already? Had he really just spent over an hour watching that one minute clip on loop?

Sam shook his head to clear it. He needed to stay under control. No crazy outbursts or fantasizing about what magic could or couldn't do. There wasn't much of a point anyway. He'd be finding out soon enough.

With his mind recentered, Sam grabbed his wallet and keys and headed out the door.

* * *

"So, Sam Price, eh?" Principal Skeeves said as he thumbed through Sam's resume. "B.S in Math from New York College with a minor in education... time spent teaching in various high profile high schools and prep schools around the world... knowledge of several foreign languages... I must say, you seem to be quite overqualified for the position we are offering. Not that it matters since the school board decided to go above my head and approved the hiring already..." Skeeves looked up and frowned, noticing that Sam wasn't paying attention to him. He tapped his desk insistently. "Mr. Price? Hello?"

Sam's eyes snapped back onto Skeeves as he finished his sentence. He cursed himself internally for letting himself get distracted by the poster behind Skeeves's head. It wasn't as if it was anything particularly interesting either. Just a picture of a bald eagle carrying an American Flag with the caption 'SUCCESS' on the bottom.

Something about the poster had drawn his attention. Maybe it was the absurdity of him being back at a school after everything that happened. Or maybe it was just the tacky aesthetic of the office throwing him off. Either way, he needed to come up with some sort of explanation, fast, before he made an even worse first impression. Just then he spotted the perfect thing to change the tone of the conversation around.

"Sorry, Edward. I was distracted by the trophy collection there behind you," Sam said, motioning to one particular row of trophies. "Were you really named Orange County's Principal of the Year?"

"I was!" Skeeves said, sitting up taller in his seat as pride filled his voice. He stood up and grabbed the trophy Sam had mentioned off the shelf and placed it on the desk between them. "2010. That was a good year." Skeeves stared off into space, reminiscing of a better time. "Could have been a two-time winner if it wasn't for Marius Lerringer pulling that miraculous perfect score a few years back. Damned Silver Hill Prep!" He raised his fat fist in the air and shook it, causing a cascading ripple in the fat on his double chin.

"From what I've seen and heard so far, I'm sure you'll win another one," Sam said, chuckling lightly. "And with me coming on, I'm pretty sure it may be sooner than you think."

"Wouldn't that be great!" Skeeves said with a chuckle before clearing his throat. "Now, back to your resume. I have a question about this right here." Skeeves tapped the paper, indicating something. Sam couldn't see it from his position, but he had a good idea what this was about. "You mention a disability from your time in the military. I'd, of course, _never _discriminate against a man with a disability. Such a thing just wouldn't be in my nature. Still, I have to ask, what exactly is the disability listed here."

Sam sighed. Ignoring the sickening feeling in his gut at what he was about to do, he lifted his left arm and pulled up the sleeve revealing the carbon fiber prosthetic. "I lost my left arm and right leg to an IED in Iraq."

"Oh my! How terrible!" Skeeves said, slapping at hand over his face. "I apologize, I didn't even realize."

Sam forced himself to smile. "That's kind of the point," he said. "I'd actually appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. I don't want anyone to treat me any differently because of this."

"Of course! Of course! You're a good man, Sam! A good man!" Skeeves said emphatically. "I can already tell we're going to do great things together." He stood up and picked up the trophy putting in back on the shelf. "I have to say, after Ms. Skullnick's sudden retirement, I was worried about what we would do. How that troll of a woman actually managed to convince someone to marry her, I'll never know." Skeeves shook his head. "Well, I'm just glad that it seems we've found such a competent replacement to take her place on such short notice. I'm sure the students will be just thrilled to get to know you."

Sam stood up and clasped the extended hand Skeeves held out to him and shook it. "Thank you, Edward! I appreciate the chance you're taking on me." Sam turned around and was about to walk towards the door when he hesitated. "Edward, can I ask you a quick question about a rumor I've heard?"

"Oh? What rumor exactly?" Skeeves asked, cocking his head slightly.

"It's about the new transfer student, Star Butterfly..." Sam started to say but trailed off as Skeeves began sweating profusely.

"Oh, no! What _has _that girl done this time?" Skeeves lamented. "Set fire to the cafeteria again? Blown up another classroom? Sent a stampede of raging unicorns running through the school?" Skeeves wiped some sweat that had accumulated on his brow as he ranted with a handkerchief. "I swear, what King River paid me to take care of that girl is not nearly enough for all the trouble she causes.."

Sam stared at him in shock for a second before answering. Looked like Vinny's info was already outdated. "No... Not that I know of... Did she really blow up a classroom?"

"Ugh, you don't know the half of it... I swear that girl is a menace!" Skeeves shook his head. "If she wasn't the sweetest girl I ever met, I'd think she was making all these messes on purpose. At least no one gets hurt. King River did warn me that she was reckless and irresponsible, but I didn't realize just how much."

"Who exactly is King River?" Sam asked, hiding his excitement behind a politely curious mask. This conversation was turning out far more informative than he'd anticipated.

"You've heard of the transfer student, Star Butterfly, right? Well, it turns out that she's a magical princess from another dimension. King River is her dad." Skeeves let out a mirthless laugh at the look Sam gave him. "I know how it sounds, I was skeptical at first too. It wasn't until I watched their carriage _literally _walk through a portal back home that I realized this was for real. Now I have a child shaped weapon walking around my school." Skeeves ran a hand up and over the bald spot on the top of his head. "I've even lost the last hair on my head from all the stress!"

"Magical Princess? Another Dimension?" Sam whispered, his eyes wide. _Holy shit, this is even bigger than Collins implied. If they can open a portal right into this world at will, doesn't that mean we're vulnerable to invasion from them at any time? And what are the limitations to these portals? Could they open one up wherever they want? The potential for assassination is terrifying._

As various different scenarios were playing out in his head, Skeeves spoke up. "Look, just talk to her yourself if you want to know more. I know I don't. She'll talk to pretty much anything that'll talk back. And maybe even a few things that won't. Like I said, sweet kid, but she definitely has a screw loose."

Sam looked up and forced his attention back on the present. "I think I'll take you up on that," Sam said, forcing a calm smile to his face. "I have to admit, I'm pretty interested in the possibility of other dimensions."

"Have at it! Pretty much everyone in the school just kind of accepts it and doesn't ask questions anymore."

"Anymore?" Sam said incredulously. "Hasn't it been just a week since she got here?"

"Yeah," Skeeves said, shrugging nonchalantly. "For some reason, it just doesn't seem all that important."

Sam stared at him incredulously as he picked at his nails casually as if he hadn't just said something totally insane.

_Something is wrong here. Why aren't they more interested in Star? This should literally be a world-shattering revelation. At minimum, you would expect someone to call the press, right? I mean, they'd think you were crazy, but it would be pretty easy to prove._

"Okaaaay..." Sam said, backing out of the room. "I guess I'll just need to figure this out myself. Thank you for answering my questions."

"Of course! And Sam? Don't cause too much trouble for the kid. I know that I said she was a menace, but she's still a VIP."

Sam hide a frown and just nodded at the man and exited the room. As he walked down the now crowded halls of Echo Creek Academy, Sam replayed the end of the conversation he'd just had with Skeeves in his head.

This was all just too strange. Nothing about this situation made any sense. How had he not even heard of Star if she'd already made the kind of mess that Skeeves had talked about? He spent most of his nights drinking in Lonny's Bar. Some of the regulars there had kids attending Echo Creek Academy. Surely rumors should have been flying around everywhere. More importantly, why didn't Vinny include this information in the folder he sent over? There was no way something as trivial as making a flaming rainbow would be highlighted as 'proof' of magic when the girl literally blew up a classroom.

A sudden, terrifying thought stopped him in his tracks. Could there be an element of mind control at play here? It was an idea that he would have considered laughable as late as last Friday. But with real magic being in play... Well, it was something that he had to at least consider.

It would explain the weird reactions of all the people here—or, more precisely, the inaction. In fact, the more Sam thought about it, the more he realized that some kind of mental effect fit uncomfortably well with everything he'd seen. So why hadn't it affected him yet? Maybe it was because he hadn't met Star yet?

Suddenly Sam's heart started thudding in his chest as he began to feel the beginning of a panic attack. He was _not _ready for this. Just two days ago, he had been wasting away in a bar. Now, all of a sudden, he was supposed to take on a mission with world-shattering implications?

Sam's vision blurred, and he suddenly realized that he'd stopped breathing at some point.

Mind control... magic... what was next, demons? Leprechauns? World spanning—no, universe-spanning conspiracies? A washed-up cripple like him had no place here. He should call Vinny and have himself replaced before he screwed this up like he screwed up everything. He should—

A reassuring hand landed on his back, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. "Hey, are you okay?"

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Good old panic attacks. Probably his favorite side effect of his final traumatic mission. Good thing he was interrupted before he really went down the rabbit hole. That would have been a hell of a thing to explain on his first day.

_I can have a mental breakdown later. Besides, if Star can control minds and create portals wherever she wants, Earth probably never stood a chance in the first place, anyway._

With that not so comforting thought in mind, Sam opened his eyes and put on a fake smile before turning to reassure the person that had noticed his distress. Only it wasn't an ordinary person that had seen his panic attack. No, that would have been all too easy. Instead, there in front of him stood his target—Star Butterfly.

"Yeah, I'm doing okay. Just a bit nervous about my first day," Sam said, his voice coming out as steady as a rock. For the first time in a while, he was glad to have his training and experience in the field. There would have been no chance he would have managed to suppress his instinct to give an exaggerated reaction to her appearance otherwise. He wasn't sure exactly what that reaction would have been, but he was pretty sure it would have made him look pretty damn stupid.

Much like her picture, she had straight golden blond hair that went all the way down to her knees. Her bangs were parted in the middle, and she wore a demon horn headband on her head. She had a cute face with big blue eyes, and strange heart-shaped pink cheek marks that Sam could somehow tell were not tattooed on.

As for her outfit, well, colorful would be the best way to describe it. She was wearing a teal sleeveless dress with four horizontal stripes across the chest, each a different shade of pink or purple. Underneath, she was wearing light green and white leggings and knee-high pink boots with styled bunny heads drawn on the tips.

"Ah, first day jitters, huh? Gotcha," Star said, nudging him with her elbows.

The first thing Sam immediately noticed about her was the fact that she spoke perfect English. If he hadn't known she was supposed to be from another dimension, he would have never guessed it just from her speech.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed, and she looked him up and down. "Aren't you kinda old to be going to school?"

"Hey, I'm only 31," Sam complained half-heartedly.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Star said, nodding in understanding. "And is it normal to be going to high school when your 31 on Earth?"

"It's my first day as a teacher, not a student," Sam said, smiling at the girl's antics. "You know, if I was actually a student, though, that would have been pretty damn rude."

"Right..." Star said, her eyes narrowing as she processed what he said. "So it _wouldn't _have been normal to be going to school at 31 then... Gotcha."

Sam couldn't help but chuckle despite himself. "I'm Sam Price, the new Math Teacher."

"Star Butterfly, Magical Princess of Mewni!" She said, lifting her wand in the air. Instead of doing whatever it is she had planned, a beam of pink light shot out of it and blasted her in the face. Sam reflexively reached out to help her only to hear a small laugh come from her slightly burned face.

"Geh," she gasped, spitting out some soot. "The magical part is kinda still a work in progress." She lifted the wand and touched it to her head, returning herself back to normal.

"Amazing..." Sam whispered, staring at her unblemished face in fascination. "Did you just heal your face instantly?"

"I did!" Star boasted, sticking out her chest proudly. "Wanna see me do it again?" She reached out and bopped her self on the head. "Burned! OW!" She touched the wand to her head again. "Normal! Burned! OW! Normal!"

She continued to do this a few more times as Sam stared in amazement.

"See! Awesome, huh?" Star said, spinning the wand between her fingers with a self-satisfied smile on her face.

_'Hell yeah, it's incredible! Now, can you do that to older burns too?_' Sam wanted to say. Instead, he decided to play it cool for now. "Yeah, it is pretty cool. Though, I think it'll get raised to _awesome _when you can fully control it and not shoot out beams randomly." Sam glanced up and suddenly noticed that the two of them were the only two people standing in the formerly crowded hallway.

Star noticed his look and looked around as well. "Oh, no! I'm late! Gotta go! See ya, Sam!"

She ran off with a quick wave.

"That's Mr. Price!" Sam shouted at her fading figure.

_She didn't comment or even seem to notice anything weird about my scar_, Sam thought idly. _I wonder if her world has a lot of vets. Could indicate a world at war. Also, her English... Is she using magic to translate for her, or does her dimension also use English? That would be a hell of a coincidence..._

Sam shook his head. _Whatever, not going to figure this out by just thinking about it out here. I guess I should get going too. I'm already late for my first class. I can figure out exactly what to make of that first meeting later._

Sam started walking towards his first class, his heart significantly lighter now that he had met the potentially dangerous girl. Sure, her magic was terrifying, but just like he'd heard from Skeeves, she seemed to be a sweet girl. He'd have to observe longer before really making any real judgment, but at the very least, he was no longer absolutely terrified of her. That was a start.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam sighed and leaned back in the chair at the desk in the front of his classroom, waiting patiently as the kids filed into his class. After a week at his new job as a Math teacher at Echo Creek Academy, he'd made little progress in his investigation.

Star had turned out to be quite difficult to corner. Despite having just started at Echo Creek a few days before he had, she'd quickly made friends with nearly everyone at school. She had proven to be extremely outgoing, never spending any time alone. That made it hard for Sam to come up with a legitimate excuse to spend some time alone with her to properly interrogate her, at least not without risking coming off as creepy.

His investigations into the people around her had also turned out to be fruitless as, for the most part, they seemed to be utterly clueless about anything related to Star's magic. Truthfully, that hadn't been unexpected. Star had only been here for a little over a week, after all. No, what had surprised Sam was the apathy that her magic was treated with. Sure, when she used her magic, it drew attention. But that attention was focused squarely on the results of the spell. Not the source.

At this point, he was nearly certain that there was some sort of mental fuckery going on related to magic. It also seemed pretty likely that it wasn't something that Star was doing actively. This kind of subtly wasn't really up her alley. There was something else at play here. Something that, for some reason, didn't seem to be affecting him.

Sighing again, Sam looked over to the stack of quizzes on his desk. Or, more specifically, the one quiz on top with Star's name on it with a big fat F, along with the words '_come see me after class_.'

At least he finally had a solid reason to talk to her one on one. She clearly had little to no grasp of algebra at all. That—plus her apparent lack of ability in basically every other subject—gave him the perfect excuse to offer her tutoring. Unfortunately, there was a problem with that plan. Based on what he'd managed to learn about her during his short week as her teacher, Sam suspected that she'd turn down the offer. She'd shown little to no interest in academics, often staring out into space or doodling during class. Luckily, Sam had a secret weapon. Well, two, actually.

By the end of the day, he _would _have Star in the perfect position to interrogate her subtly.

"Alright, I'll be handing back your quizzes today," Sam said, using his good hand to pick up the stack of papers. He transferred the stack to his prosthetic, awkwardly holding the sheets against his chest. Hopefully, no one would notice something was up. "I can see from the results that some of you didn't quite grasp some of the concepts we talked about last week. After I hand these back, I'll go over every question on the quiz so that we can make sure we're on the same page moving forward. If you still have any questions, please come see me during the office hours that I have listed on my door."

Sam walked forward and handed the top sheet to Star, making sure to fold it and hand it to her face down in an effort not to embarrass her. Star quickly made the gesture pointless.

"Hey, Marco! Check it out!" Star called, showing off the sheet to Marco. "I got an F. F for fantastic!"

"That's an 'F' for fail," Marco Diaz, the boy sitting next to her, explained. From what Sam had been able to gather, he was currently her closest friend in Echo Creek.

Marco was a pretty average kid. Medium height, athletic—if a bit skinny—build, tanned skin, and dark brown hair combined to give him a look that didn't exactly stand out in a crowd. His main distinguishing features were a mole under his right eye and the red hoodie and black skinny jeans he always seemed to wear.

His nickname among classmates was 'safe kid,' which he'd apparently earned as a result of wearing a helmet into the gym showers. Sam hadn't initially believed the explanation, thinking it was a weird roundabout way to bully him. But as he dug more and more into Marco's history, the story had been corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses, so he'd been forced to accept it as fact.

Star and Marco couldn't have found someone more different than themselves if they tried. And yet, by all accounts, they were best friends. The fact that Star was living with Marco's family during her stay on Earth helped explain the fast friendship, but it seemed that the old saying 'opposites attract' had more truth to it than he'd thought.

"Huh?" Star said, staring at her test in surprise and disappointment.

Sam suppressed the urge to facepalm as he continued handing out quizzes to the rest of the class. It was way too early in the morning for Star's shenanigans. Marco could deal with this one.

Sam tuned out the rest of their conversation as he finished handing out the quizzes. By the time he was done with his task and ready to start his lecture, it seemed that Star had come to some kind of resolution because she skipped up the front of the class.

"Oh, Saaaaammm!" Star said, coming to a stop right in front of him. "Can you please do me a teeny favor and turn my 'F' into an 'A'?" She held her fingers apart, just a few millimeters from touching as she asked.

Sam blinked in surprise, a bit shocked that she actually seemed to care about the grade. Especially surprising, considering she didn't even know what the grades meant just a few minutes ago. It appeared that he'd underestimated her competitive nature. Maybe he wouldn't need any tricks to get her to accept tutoring after all.

"Your grade is a representation of how well you showed that you know the material," Sam said, shaking his head with a chuckle. "I can't just give you an 'A'! You have to earn it by proving you know the material. If you come back after class, we can talk about this more."

Star stared at him mutely for a second, chewing on her wand as she considered his statement. Suddenly her eyes lit up, and she thrust her finger in the air dramatically. "I got it!"

"Got what?" Sam asked, backing a bit further away at the look in her eye. He didn't like the way her eyes were sparkling.

"I'll cast a spell to heal your limp! Then you can give me the perfect grade!" She exclaimed, pointing her wand at Sam.

"What?! No, Star, wait—" Sam tried to say, but it was too late.

"Retunikus Body Normarino!" She yelled. A blast of blue light shot out of her wand and impacted Sam.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Sam roared as he felt the flames agony suddenly engulfed his entire body. With what little awareness he had left, the only thing he could think of was that he'd never in his entire life felt pain like this. Not even when his body had been utterly destroyed, nor the rehab from said injury could compare. This was different. Unnatural. It felt as though every nerve in his body was on fire simultaneously.

Thankfully, it didn't last long, and he quickly fainted.

* * *

"—worry, Marco! See, look, he's waking up!"

Sam groaned, pushing through the ringing in his ears as he tried to focus. Star and Marco watched him worriedly as he carefully sat up and looked around at the unfamiliar room. It was a strange place—a sort of mix between a regular room and a medieval palace. And there wasn't a clear separation between the two either. At the bottom, it was made of some kind of painted brick, but as you went higher, the room rapidly morphed into a different building material. It was some kind of shiny white stone that Sam didn't recognize. In fact, now that he'd looked more closely, it looked like the top may have been more than a decorative high ceiling because there was a spiral staircase leading up somewhere.

There was no way that this was naturally built. It must have been the result of Star's magic. Thinking back, in Vinny's surveillance photos of Marco's house, there had been a strange tower sticking out of one end of it. That must be where he was.

Sam shook his head, doing his best to clear out the last of the residual buzzing before turning his full attention to his two students.

"What the hell just happened?" Sam asked.

"I turned your leg into metal," Star said nervously. "On the bright side, the scars on your face are mostly gone! Haha...ha"

"Turned my leg into..." Sam looked down at his shredded pant leg and saw his prosthetic exposed to the world. Sam suppressed the instinctual urge to cover his leg as the shame of having his disability exposed coursed through him.

_Well, there goes any hope of hiding my lost limbs. _Sam thought with a heavy heart. _I must have torn up my pant leg while I was writhing in pain back in the classroom. Everyone must have seen it._

Star seemed to see something she didn't like on his face because she suddenly launched into action, grabbing a huge book from under her desk.

As Sam watch Star drag the hefty tome over to where Marco was standing, a thought struck him, pushing through the shame. _I can use this... See what she does when she screws up her magic. I can jump in and correct the misunderstanding at any time. Claim that I was in shock if asked about it later. _Sam felt a bit of guilt at the thought but pushed on. _Can't be letting my emotions get the best of me. This is for her own good anyway. The whole point of taking this job in the first place was to make sure Vinny didn't take advantage of this kid. And to do that, I need to know the limitations of magic._

Conscience assuaged, Sam settled in to watch the show.

"Don't worry! I can fix this! I just need to find the right spell..." Star quickly flipped through the book, muttering as she read the names of the spells on each page.

"Star, don't you think you should call your mom?" Marco asked, looking between Sam's exposed leg and the frantic Star. "This is serious."

Star shot up and grabbed Marco by the collar. "No! I can't ask for help! If my parents find out about this, they're gonna send me to St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses! It's a terrible, horrible place and no one who goes there ever comes out the same! AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"

Star started yelling at the top of her lungs as she imagined whatever horrors would happen to her in that school. She held the scream for a good few seconds before finally stopping.

"Is it all out yet?" Marco asked softly.

"Almost," Star said, before starting to yell again. "NOOOOOOOOO! Okay, now I'm done."

Marco put a hand onto the dejected-looking Star's shoulder. "Look, Star, you just need to get the information without letting her know what's going on," Marco said. "You know, dance around the truth."

Suddenly, Star perked up. "I'm a great dancer!" She then proceeded to shimmy over to a set of drapes covering a mirror. She did a quick spin before yanking on a cord hanging from the ceiling, uncovering the mirror.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, call Mom," Star sang.

"Calling Tom," the mirror replied in a robotic tone. A UI reminiscent of a phone's appeared on the mirror as it spoke, displaying the same information the voice announced.

_Chatting via mirrors. Interesting. I wonder if it's made of different material or if it's an ordinary mirror enchanted to work this way?_

The instant the mirror said the word Tom, Star began to panic. "Whoa whoa whoa, wai—"

A three-eyed demon suddenly appeared in the mirror, a broad smile stretching his face. He had reddish-pink hair and purple skin along with horns coming out of the side of his head. The horns themselves were brown with lighter tips, reminiscent of a cow's horns.

"Star!" He said excitedly. Sam noted that the demon also seemed to speak perfect American English.

"No. No." Star stated sharply, holding her hands out in front of her defensively.

"Oh, wait," the demon said. "You're here, I'm here—"

"I said, call Mom, not Tom."

"No, Star. Don't hang up," Tom roared, his voice becoming demonic and his eyes starting to glow. And was that... a wall of fire that suddenly appeared behind him?

Star promptly hung up on him by pressing a red diamond-shaped crystal on the outer edge of the mirror.

"I really got to delete him off my mirror," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Sam shook his head, silently mulling over the existence of that demon-like creature as Star attempted to call her mother again. Looked like the monstrous humanoids and Mewmans—the name of Star's species—weren't all at odds. Star had rejected talking to him, but the conversation had been civil, more or less.

Still, knowing that a species of what was best described as demons actually existed was a frightening concept. Sam hoped that he would discover that these demons didn't share anything more than a passing resemblance to the ones in Earth's mythology.

This short trip to the Diaz household was certainly turning out to be a veritable goldmine of information. He'd already learned more today than he had since he'd started his job at Echo Creek. Hopefully, the tutoring sessions he was planning to have with Star would be just as effective—and ideally much less painful.

Sam's musing was interrupted as the mirror finally connected to Star's mother. A regal-looking woman with pale blue, almost silver hair styled in a ridiculously tall heart-shaped updo appeared in the mirror. Like Star, she had marks on her cheeks—though her's were magenta diamonds. From what little of her body Sam could see through the mirror, she seemed to be wearing a very elaborate blue dress.

"Oh, Star, darling, what a pleasant surprise!" the queen said. Surprisingly, when the queen spoke, she had a British accent. Strange considering that Star didn't seem to have the slightest trace of one. Just another oddity to add to his growing list.

"So, Mom," Star started to say. "Let's just say that someone accidentally turned someone's leg into metal with a wand—Not that I would do that, no, no, no, that would be totally irresponsible, haha—but let's say hypothetically..."

"So, what's the queen's name?" Sam asked Marco as Star continued to try to 'dance around the truth.'

"Moon," Marco said, looking over at him. "Star says she's pretty strict, but knowing Star, who knows..."

Sam laughed. "Yeah... I can imagine that raising someone as... _energetic _as Star would be hard."

"I'll say. Last week, she turned my entire living room into a beach. She fixed it later, but I still find pockets of sand hidden away sometimes."

Sam gave Marco a sympathetic look before turning his focus back onto Star's conversation. Things were not going very well on that front. The more Star continued to babble, the more her mother's expression hardened. Finally, Moon had had enough and interrupted Star's rant.

"Star, what exactly is going on?" She asked.

"Got to go, bye!" Giving up on her tactic, Star just reached up and hung up Moon.

Defeated, she dropped back down in front of the book. "I just need to find the spell undo my last one. Then everything will be okay, and no one needs to be sent to St. O's..."

She lapsed into moody silence as she silently searched the book once again.

"You didn't turn my leg into metal," Sam finally said, sighing as he realized it was time to come clean. "I lost my leg two years ago. I was wearing a prosthetic when you hit me with the spell originally."

"Oooooohhh," Star said, looking up from the book. She got up and looked closely at his leg. "That explains that then." She pointed to the point above Sam's knee, where the prosthetic ended, and his skin started. Only instead of the strap that ordinarily held the leg in place, the material seemed to have fused with his flesh. Uh oh.

Sam gulped and ran a finger over the border between flesh and carbon fiber. It was smooth and totally seamless. And even more strangely...

"I can feel it," Sam whispered, staring in awe.

"Say what now?" Marco said, staring at him in confusion.

"My leg... the prosthetic... I can feel it now," Sam said, prodding different points on his leg, marveling at the way he could feel every prod. He looked up at them, a wide dopey grin on his face. "I can feel my leg!"

Star and Marco exchanged a look. "You can feel when your prosthetic leg gets touched?"

"Yup," Sam said when another thought struck him. If he could feel it, maybe he could move it! He concentrated on how it used to feel to move his old flesh and blood leg, focusing on moving his foot up and down. To his amazement, the prosthetic moved precisely the way he envisioned.

Without any further testing, Sam tried to hop to his feet. Unfortunately, he underestimated the strength of his newly healed body and fell forward face first instead. As he gathered himself with a giddy giggle, he couldn't help but marvel at the way his body didn't hurt as much as he expected it to after that kind of tumble. With the scar tissue all over his body and his back problems, that mishap should have left him in so much pain he would be unable to move. Instead, it was more like a dull ache.

Sam lifted his shirt and ran a hand his hand over the mostly unblemished flesh there. The only hint of his old wounds was the light kind of shiny sheen of the skin. It didn't quite look like it used to—the scar was still easily visible—but it was a hell of a sight better than before. And if his leg and stomach were fixed...

Sam raised his trembling left hand to his face, carefully removing the glove that he used to find the prosthetic, revealing the carbon fiber hand. Just like for his leg, he willed his fingers to move, and they did.

Sam must have spent a solid minute staring at his hand. Just moving his fingers one at a time in amazement.

"Star... thank you..." Sam whispered once he managed to look away from the mesmerizing sight of his fingers moving on command. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time. "You've given me my life back. I owe you everything."

"Huh?" Star tore her eyes away from his chest that she'd apparently been staring at ever since he lifted his shirt a while back. "In that case, how about that 'A'?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Uh, no," Sam said with a chuckle as he wiped away the tears. "That is that, and this is this. If you need a favor, I'm there, but I'm not changing your grades for you. You have to earn that. Sorry."

"What?! Then how can I get a better grade than Marco?" Star complained.

"You just have to study Star," Marco said. "No shortcuts, no magic. Just good old fashioned hard work."

"That's exactly right," Sam said, nodding. "Actually, that segues pretty well into another conversation I wanted to have with you. You remember how I left you a note on your quiz to come to see me after class?"

"Uh..." Star said.

Sam laughed. "It's okay, It's been a pretty hectic day... What I wanted to ask was if you wanted some tutoring to help you catch up with everyone else in class—" Sam abruptly stopped talking as a thought hit him. "Wait a minute... class..." Sam blinked a few times. "How did I get here anyway? We were in the middle of the classroom, then I woke up here."

"Uh... weeeelllll—" Star started to say when Marco interrupted her.

"Star teleported you here," he said impatiently, looking at his watch. "Oh no, class! We totally just ditched!"

"Alright, Star, we can talk about the tutoring I wanted to offer you later. For now, can you teleport us back to class?" Sam paused and looked down at himself. More specifically, he looked down at his torn up pant leg and the revealed prosthetic—or maybe he should consider it a real limb now? Either way, the thought of the looks he would get was enough to get him to start sweating. "On second thought, you two go on without me. I need to go home and get changed."

"I, uh, don't actually know how to do that," Star admitted sheepishly.

Sam gave her a skeptical look. "Then how did you get us back here?"

"I _maaaaayy _have tried to undo the spell I cast on you and accidentally teleported us here instead."

Sam felt cold sweat start to accumulate on his brow and back. To think that this is the girl that had just restored his body... He was lucky to be alive, wasn't he?

"Okay, then I guess we'll walk back to school then," Sam said. He did not want to tempt fate again. One miracle in a day was enough for him. "This place isn't that far, right, Marco?"

"Yeah, it's only like 20 minutes away," he replied.

"Not if we _fllllyyyyyy_!" Star said in a singsong voice. She pulled out her wand and immediately started casting a spell. "_Shining Rug Transformation Blast_!"

A beam of light shot out of her wand, hitting a small pink carpet on the floor. The light inundated the rug, running through it. A pair of eyes suddenly appeared. The newly born carpet promptly turned a disdainful look at them.

"What the hell do you want?" the carpet said in a strangely deep voice that didn't match its cute appearance.

"Magic Carpet, fly us to school!" Star said, pointing towards a wall. Based on the position of the sun he could see outside the window, Sam was pretty sure she wasn't pointing the right way but elected to keep the thought to himself.

"Hell no! You're not the boss of me!" The carpet said before promptly flying out the closed window, sending shards of glass flying everywhere.

The three of them stared after it as it successfully flew about five feet before promptly crashing down to the ground in the back yard. The sound of very loud and creative cursing came from where it landed, signaling that it had survived its inauspicious inaugural flight.

"We probably should help that carpet, right?" Sam said, shaking his head at the absurdity of his statement. "I mean, at the very least we should catch it. Can't exactly just leave it out there wandering around Echo Creek."

Marco nodded in agreement, but Star just stared at another carpet thoughtfully.

"Wait, wait, wait! I think I know what I did wrong last time. One more try!" Star pointed her wand at it. "_Shining Rug Tra_—mph!"

Before she could finish the spell, Marco covered her mouth with his hands. "NO! Not again!"

Star rolled her eyes and huffed in annoyance but seemed to acquiesce. Sam let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Dealing with these two was really stressful.

Star and Marco raced out of the room, heading out towards the yard. Leaving Sam alone with his thoughts. He looked down and his hand and clenched it into a fist, newfound resolve coursing through him.

_Thank you, Star. Thank you. I'll pay you back for this gift. I promise._


	4. Chapter 4

Sam experimentally took a few small steps, a little nervous about suddenly putting his full weight on his new leg. It turned out he needn't have worried—the limb carried his weight easily. Beyond a little stiffness at the knee and ankle, it was basically perfect. A small price to pay for the limb's renewed mobility.

Happy with the results of his experimentation, Sam looked around, contemplating searching the room but quickly decided against it. There were far too many things that could go wrong, starting with the possibility of Star having a magical way to detect the invasion of her privacy. No, better to just follow after them for now.

Sam started slowly walking out of Star's room and out into the hallway outside. With every step he took, his confidence in the new limb increased, until, finally, walking felt almost as natural as it had before.

Of course, that confidence all but evaporated when he reached his old nemesis: stairs. Not quite ready to trust his new leg _that _much, Sam went back to the tried and tested method he always used when he needed to deal with stairs—the one-footed shuffle. Good foot first, shift weight down, then swing the other foot over. Safe but slow.

Grabbing the railing for support, Sam slowly made his way down. The tedious task was made easier and quicker, thanks to his newfound ability to bend his knee at will. It saved him the effort of having to swing his leg out wide and coming back around the way he usually did.

Eventually, he made his way to the bottom of the stairs and found himself in the Diazs' living room. It was an airy space, complete with a long table, a cozy-looking couch, and a fireplace against the far wall. Along the walls were pictures of many different kids together with the Diaz family. Other exchange students, maybe? Vinny's report had mentioned that the Diaz family often took in foreign exchange students.

Moving his gaze over to the other side of the room, Sam found that the living room opened right up into the kitchen. There he spotted what he was looking for—the door to the backyard.

With nothing more than a passing glance around him as he walked through, Sam exited the house. He soon spotted Star and Marco huddled over a squirming figure. The carpet had managed to get itself caught in one of the cactuses dotting the landscape of the backyard. Despite its herculean effort, it couldn't untangle itself. With nothing else to do, it was writhing in place, yelling profanity into the crisp morning air.

If this adventure was indicative of a typical day in the Diaz household, Sam did not envy their neighbors. He let out a small chuckle as he imagined an angry neighbor coming over to complain about the noise only to find a magic carpet as a source.

He shook his head lightly and slowly shuffled over to the three of them. As he did, Sam took the time to quickly check the house from the outside. Just like he'd guessed from the inside of the house, a medieval spire stuck out of the roof. In fact, judging by the way the roof was splintered at the edges where it met the spire, it seemed likely that it had suddenly come into existence from inside the house.

Sam idly wondered if they trouble with leaks on rainy days as he closed the last of the distance to the energetic carpet.

"Let go of me, you fucker!" The carpet yelled. "I'll kill your whole species you cocksucking piece of garbage!"

Sam whistled. "That carpet sure can talk, huh? Not all that smart, though," Sam said, as he crouched in front of the carpet's face. "So, what happens to it now?"

Neither Star or Marco answered him. Their attention fully captivated by the carpet. The carpet, on the other hand, heard his comment and decided to turn its ire onto him.

"Oh, so you're a tough guy, huh? Why don't you get a bit closer, and I'll show you who's smart, HUH?!"

"How would proving that you can beat me in a fight make you smart?" Sam gave it a disappointed look. "I'd just stop talking if I were you. Every time you open your mouth, you just prove my point more and more."

"YOU LITTLE—"

As the carpet prepared to deliver its next round of epic insults, the sound of fabric tearing sounded out behind them. Sam spun around just in time to catch a portal shimmering into existence. He stared at it, dumbfounded as the same group of monstrous humanoids he'd seen in the security cam film spilled out of it.

His brain ignored them as they gathered up in front of them, the portal commanding his full attention. He'd read about portals in Vinny's report, but this was his first time actually seeing one himself.

It was a terrifying sight—as if someone cut a circle into space itself, leading to a completely different place. The edge of the portal was a sort of jagged glowing white line, clearly delineating the point where its influence ended.

"Ludo! What are you doing here?" Star asked, pulling out her wand and aiming it at a small, scaled monster wearing a skull on his head. The skull looked kind of like it would belong to a horned alligator.

The monster—Ludo—contorted its beak and gave Star an evil grin, revealing sharp teeth. Sam tensed up, preparing to draw the gun he kept holstered at his ankle—only to find it missing.

_Where could it have gone?! Could I have lost it while I was thrashing around when Star's spell hit me? Damn it! What if some kid finds it? _Sam thought, gritting his teeth before forcing himself to focus on his more immediate problems. 

_I can worry about what happened later. For now, the top priority is getting Star and Marco out of here. My balance is still a mess, so there's no way that I'll be able to fight properly. Not that it would do much good against these numbers anyway... But running is probably out as well. Maybe we can run inside and barricade the doors? No, they enemy way too big and strong for that. Without the time to make a real barricade, they'll just destroy the door. Then, what can we do?_

The answer was obvious. If he couldn't do anything himself, call for help and stall. Sam subtly reached into his jacket and dialed 911. He wouldn't be able to actually talk to the dispatcher, but if he left the line open, the cops would hopefully be able to trace the call and send help soon.

"Catching you at your most distracted!" Ludo answered. His voice was not what Sam had been expecting. High and nasally, it sounded more like it belonged on a child rather than to a threatening monster. Even one as small and weak-looking as this one was.

"What?" Star answered, staring at Ludo with a confused look on her face. "I have been _waaaay _more distracted than this."

Ludo looked her up and down. "I don't know, you seem... pretty distracted."

"Nah, not really," Star responded casually.

"Oh, well," Ludo sighed, looking down disappointedly.

Sam's eyes flickered between the two of them as he struggled to understand what he was seeing. Where was the tension? The fear? Why did this feel more like they were playing a game rather than fighting for survival?

As if he were trying to confirm Sam's assessment, Ludo suddenly pointed behind Star and yelled, "What's that over there?"

_Really?_

"Where?" Star asked, actually looking at where he pointed.

"Get her!"

The group of monsters charged, running at them with reckless abandon. There we go. The setup had been strange, but it looked like they were going to get a real fight after all.

"Marco, Star, run!" Sam whispered urgently, as the monsters barreled over to them. "I'll buy you some time to get away."

"Psh, run? From Ludo?" Star said, laughing as she pushed her way past Sam. "Don't worry, we beat Ludo all the time!"

"What?" Sam said, staring at her wide-eyed. Even Marco seemed to agree with her as he joined her in front of Sam.

"She's right, Mr. Price," Marco said, settling into a karate stance. "We've got this."

Sam stepped forward, intending to forcefully pull the two reckless idiots back. Instead, he ended up faceplanting as his body didn't react the way he expected. Sam tried to rush back to his feet only to fall right back to the ground moments later.

_Damn it! For the first time in my life, I wish I had my shitty broken body back. At least I knew how to use it. _Sam thought as forced himself to slow down and try again.

By the time he managed to get back onto his feet, Star and Marco were already neck-deep in monsters. Surprisingly, they were holding their own. No, they were doing more than holding their own—they were wiping the floor with them.

In fact, as he watched the battle go on, it became more and more apparent that half of the monstrous humanoids were handing back, afraid of fighting the two teens. Eventually, Ludo noticed this as well and ran up to the terrified bunch.

"What are you idiots doing?!" Ludo said, physically pushing the monsters towards them. "Group up and get them already!"

"But master, they're too strong..." an antelope horned monster with a big beard whined. Hearing English come out of someone with that kind of form was extremely odd. At least the disjointed feeling wasn't quite as off-putting as hearing Ludos's voice had been since his deep voice matched his body better.

After a few more rounds of yelling, Ludo seemed to finally convince his group to do as he said. The monsters began to charge towards Star and Marco, reluctantly joining the fray. As they arrived, Star jumped up in the air. Her wand started shining bright pink right as she began to spin gracefully, thoroughly looking the part of a magical princess she claimed to be. When she finally reached the apex of an inhumanly high jump, she stopped spinning and pointed the still glowing wand at the monsters.

"_Dagger Crystal Heart Attack_!" She yelled as a beam of pink light with hearts floating inside of it shot out of her wand. "Feel the love!"

The blast impacted the monsters, simultaneously sending them flying and piercing them with heart-shaped crystals. The few monsters that weren't hit by Star's spell quickly closed in on Marco, probably considering him the easier target.

"I'm obligated to warn you," Marco said as he pulled a white strip of cloth out of pocket, tying it to his head like a headband. "I'm a green belt. With a stripe."

The three monsters facing him gave out unimpressed oohs—though Sam wasn't sure if it was because they did or didn't understand the statement. Undeterred, Marco stepped on the end of a nearby rake, kicking it into his hand and spinning it dramatically a few times. Once he was done showing off, he motioned for the monsters to charge him. The monsters acquiesced and were subsequently easily beaten down as Marco effortlessly pushed back all three of them.

"_Narwhal Blast_!"

"Hi-yah!"

"Damn! Those two are scaaarreee!" The carpet side from behind him. "Glad I didn't mess with them."

As he watched Star and Marco demolish the horde of monsters, Sam couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. Star's abilities in combat, while surprising, weren't too far off from what he'd been expecting. One of the few things that he'd managed to learn about her background was that she apparently 'fought' monsters all the time. He hadn't known what to make of that statement at the time, but judging by the way she was handling herself now, it seemed like she hadn't been exaggerating.

So when he saw her weaving her way through the monsters, gracefully dodging their attacks as she blasted them with magic, that wasn't too shocking. Marco's performance, on the other hand, was a complete surprise.

Despite his claim of being a green belt, he moved with skill and experience that didn't befit the rank. The most impressive attribute he showed was his ability to handle multiple larger opponents. In real-world fighting, it was tough for one man to beat someone much bigger than themselves. That went doubly for fighting more than one such person. That was usually the kind of thing reserved for action movies and experts beating on people with no experience.

And yet Marco, despite not currently fitting either criteria, was managing precisely that. The way that he danced around his enemies' blows was impressive. He wasn't perfect, occasionally messing up either his positioning or losing track of one of the monsters and taking a hit, but the talent he showcased was impressive. No matter how good you were, it was easy to get overwhelmed—lost in a sea of punches and kicks. Sam had plenty of experience with that himself. Yet here was a boy about half his age showing more skill than he had any right to.

As he watched one of the monsters, a giant anthropomorphic lobster, get sent flying by one of Marco's punches, a thought suddenly struck him. Could Marco have been magically enhanced by Star? It would explain how he had the strength to land blows against the much larger monsters that sent them flying.

He'd ask him about it later. For now, it was enough to know that Marco and Star could handle themselves. There was no need for him to interfere.

Finally feeling relaxed enough not to feel like he had to jump in and save them, he decided to abort his plan to get the police involved. He pulled the phone that was still connected to the police dispatcher to his ear and told them that he'd mistakenly 'butt-dialed' them.

With that out of the way, Sam sat back and watched the fight more closely. As he relaxed and took off the frantic, panicked lens that he had been watching the battle through previously, Sam was once again struck by how tame all this was. None of the monsters seemed to be going for lethal attacks, and neither were the kids. It felt more like both sides were having fun play-fighting than having a real battle. Granted, the monsters were easily on the worse end of things, getting hit hard enough to draw blood more often than not. And perhaps what he was seeing was just the result of incompetence on both sides. Still, at minimum, he'd expected to see more of a sense of urgency from both sides.

Even back when he'd initially seen the footage of the monster attack, he'd felt that something was off. In it, Star Butterfly had been shown to have fought off monsters that appeared at a convenience store on her first night on Earth. But that in itself had struck him as odd. Why had she been put in a situation where she had to fight off attacking monsters in the first place? She was the heir to the throne. A princess. Would someone like that really just be left in an unfamiliar world undefended?

It just didn't add up. None of this did. And if Ludo and his associates were as incompetent as they seemed, why was he allowed to remain in power? Even if the royal family somehow didn't have the resources to root out a dimension-hopping criminal, you would think that another—more ruthless—criminal would naturally take his place.

There had to be more going on under the surface. Perhaps the Butterfly family's position in their kingdom wasn't entirely as secure as Star seemed to think. Or maybe everyone on Mewni was just less intelligent and competent than on Earth. It was entirely possible, he supposed. It was a different dimension. Who was to say that there couldn't be a dimension of imbeciles with magic powers out there?

Still, his instincts told him that this wasn't the case. Star, for all her flaws, was not an idiot. Weird and hyperactive, definitely. But she was no dummy.

Sam turned his attention back to the fight, only to find Marco about to be overwhelmed. Damn it, his bad habit had struck again! He'd been so caught up in his own thoughts that he'd lost track of what was going on.

"Marco!" Star and Sam shouted together as they watched helplessly as Marco finally made a mistake he couldn't recover from and was knocked to the floor. Moments later, he was covered in monsters as a dog pile formed where he'd fallen. Sam took off running, determined to get there before anything could happen to him.

Or at least he would have, had he not forgotten about his newly healed leg again. On his second step, when he pushed off with his new leg, the amount of power that he used was much greater than he'd anticipated. He was sent flying forward, sailing through the air with all the grace of a sack of potatoes before crashing to the ground face-first a good distance away from where he'd started.

_So my new leg is way stronger than the other one... That's going to take some getting used to._

Sam shook himself off and got back onto his feet, but before he could try again, Star suddenly floated up in the air. Her face was dark, and for the first time since the fight started, a serious expression had replaced her customary smirk. She turned her wand—glowing brighter than Sam had ever seen before—to the pile and shouted out a spell.

"_Turbo_ _Nuclear Butterfly Blast_!"

_WHAT?! A NUKE?! _

"STAR, WAI—" Sam shouted, but it was too late.

**BOOM**!

For the second time that day, everything went white. When Sam came to a few seconds later, he found himself smashed against the wall, his whole body aching. For a second, a memory of a similar experience flashed through his mind. He quickly suppressed the thought, knowing that thinking about it too much would lead to a flashback.

_Well, at least I'm alive. _Sam thought as he slowly raised himself to his feet and took in the damage. Luckily, despite the name of the attack, Star's spell didn't have anywhere near the level of destruction that was implied. All around, monsters sat on the ground, groaning in pain. Hurt, sure, but alive. Shining butterflies floated around aimlessly, an incongruous sight, especially when juxtaposed with the intermittent fires spread about the backyard. Based on the damage Sam could see around him, the explosion hadn't extended far outside of the Diaz family's property, restricting the damage to a 20 to 30-foot circle.

And there, in the middle of a crater of her own making, stood a slack-jawed Star, her arms still held high. Her eyes shot around as she took in the damage around her, lips quivering. Sam felt a burst of pity as he watched her. How terrifying must it be to know that you could wield so much power at the drop of a hat?

Of course, a few seconds later, Sam's guess about what she was feeling was proven wrong when Star dropped her arms to her sides and let out a bellowing laugh.

"Wooooooooow!" She yelled out, a satisfied look on her face.

_She was excited, not scared. Figures. Should have seen that coming._

Marco stood up from where he'd been lying earlier, looking slightly singed and covered in butterflies but otherwise unhurt. He stared at Star's laughing figure, his right eye twitching.

_I feel you, buddy_, Sam thought sympathetically as the two of them just watched Star laugh at the destruction she'd wrought.

Ludo was the first of the monsters to get up, walking over to the bearded monster and shaking him aggressively.

"Get up! Get uuuuup!" He shouted in Beardy's face. The monster didn't respond, clearly unconscious from the blast.

As Ludo continued to shake the monster desperately, Star strolled over to him. "Told you I wasn't distrac—Wait, did I kill that guy?!" Star said, a look of absolute horror on her face.

_So it really was play fighting... As I thought, she was never aiming to kill._

"No, he's not dead!" Ludo said, dropping Beardy and letting him flop to the ground. "He's probably just bleeding internally... and being a total baby about it!" He shot him a disgusted look and proceeded to kick his leg. Beardy responded with a small groan, proving he was alive.

Ludo pulled a pair of scissors our of his robe and stabbed them into the space in front of him. Sam stared in awe as space itself was cut to pieces right in front of him, with nothing but a small pair of scissors as the source. Looked like he'd found the source of the portals.

Once Ludo reached the ground, he pulled the scissors away from the gash. The instant the scissors were removed, the glowing line broke open, turning into an oval and revealing the other side of the portal. It was hard to see from his position, but it looked like there was a dark castle on the other side. He turned around and shouted at his followers.

"Get up, you dipsticks!" Ludo shouted. The monsters slowly got to their feet, groaning the whole time. They slowly trudged over to the portal as Sam watched on incredulously.

"Damn, they're letting them go after all that? I would have smoked their asses!" The carpet said. He glanced over at the foul-mouthed carpet for a second before turning back to the scene in front of him. The carpet had a point.

Sam walked over to Star and Marco. "Are you sure that you should be letting him go like this?" Sam asked, watching Ludo berated his lackeys as they walked through the portal. "It would be really easy to capture them right now."

Surprisingly, it was Marco that answered. "Eh, it's fine. Ludo's not really all that dangerous."

"Besides," Star added, grinning mischievously. "This way is a lot more fun!"

_Fun. Really? _Sam shook his head but didn't say anything aloud. _I don't know enough about this situation to comment yet. Before understanding the politics involved, convincing Star to take Ludo more seriously could be a mistake. It's becoming clear that access to Mewni is probably going to be required to properly do my job._

Sam narrowed his eyes as he watched as the last monster hopped through the portal, leaving just Ludo on this side. Ludo marched through the portal after them, muttering something about his men's ineptitude as the portal closed behind him.

Sam stared at the empty space the portal had just occupied for a few seconds before a predatory grin spread across his face.

Access to Mewni... Well, it seemed like he'd just found the perfect person to help him with that.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam jogged through the forest outside town, very deliberately putting as little pressure as he could on his new leg. Not because he didn't trust the new limb to handle the weight. No, after a day of trial and error in the safety of his apartment, it had pretty quickly become apparent that his new limb could handle the abuse.

Instead, he had the opposite problem. With every step, he worried about exerting too much strength and sending himself flying through the air, just like he had during the fight a few days ago. His initial assessment of the new limb being 'stronger' than his flesh and blood one had turned out to be a massive understatement. As a result, he was forced to be overly aware of the limb, holding back as much as possible in the hopes of not sending himself tumbling to the ground.

Beyond that, he'd quickly noticed that the limb was far less flexible than a flesh and blood one would be. For the most part, both his ankle and knee only moved forward and backward. That restriction made it hard to move quickly laterally and threw off his balance. His arm had the same problem as well, with the fingers of his hand closing straight down and his wrist being locked into place. It would take a long time for him to get used to the limitations of new limbs before he really trusted them with any kind of task that required fine motor control.

Still, despite the flaws, the newfound sense of freedom the limbs gave him was exhilarating. Even with how careful he had to be not to send himself flying, just being able to jog at all was a revelation. Nevermind that he was currently weaving between the massive redwoods running up a mountain, with the former state of his body, even running on a track was impossible.

For years, he'd been forced to think before taking any action for fear of his body failing on him. Every small movement, no matter how small, could bring a bout of piercing pain. He remembered one time—not long after he left the hospital—he'd leaned over to pick up a glass of water sitting on the bedside table. He'd barely grabbed it when his body decided to give up on him, sending shooting pain running down his back. Eventually, he'd passed out from the pain, but the experience had been traumatizing. All it had taken was twisting in just the wrong way for his body to fail him, and that kind of problem followed him everywhere in his life.

Now though, here he was, running freely. Sure, it was still a bit awkward, and he fell on his face every couple of minutes. And sure, his new arm was turning out to be just as problematic as his leg, leading to many accidents over the weekend. But that was nothing. A price he'd willingly pay for a new lease on life.

_It's been almost ten minutes since I last lost control. Looks like I'm getting the hang of this._

Nearly the same instant that he had that thought, Sam miscalculated the distance to a particularly large root and was sent sprawling to the ground as he tripped on it. Spitting out the mouthful of dirt, Sam rolled onto his back and broke into a deep laugh.

"Hahaha! It doesn't hurt! It doesn't hurt!"

He just kept laughing maniacally, tears spilling down his face. It was amazing the way that someone's fate could change. Magic! To think that it would be magic of all things. Life was crazy.

It all still felt so unreal. Even a few days later, the whole thing still felt like a dream. That eventually, he'd wake up in his shitty old apartment and lift his arm, only to find the stump that had greeted him for the last few years.

Sam thought back to the first night after the healing when he'd been too scared to fall asleep for that very reason. So instead, he'd just sat in his bed, flexing his fingers over and over again. He'd spent the entire night just watching with giddy amazement as they responded to his will. If this was all a dream, he was going to enjoy it as much as he could for as long as he could. And that meant... it was time to really test his capabilities.

Sitting up and looking around, Sam spotted the massive redwood whose root had tripped him up. Perfect. Just what he needed to test his leg out. While he'd already felt the insane strength of the limb when he failed to control it, this would be his first attempt to intentionally push himself as hard as he could.

He walked up to the tree, pulling out a knife from its sheath on his ankle. Sam frowned at the sight of his other ankle's missing gun holster. A reminder of yet another problem he had to deal with. Even after getting back to school and looking around, Sam still hadn't been able to find his missing gun. The worst part of the whole thing was that he couldn't just report it missing.

It wasn't exactly normal to carry around a gun in a Californian school, especially an unregistered firearm that he didn't have a permit to concealed carry. Not that it mattered either way. He doubted that the PTA and Principal Skeeves would take too kindly to knowing that he'd lost the weapon on school grounds even if he had been legally allowed to carry it.

Under normal circumstances, he'd happily report the gun missing regardless and pay the price, but with Vinny's threats hanging over his head, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Especially now that he owed Star as much as he did.

No, he had no choice. He would refocus his efforts on finding the missing gun on Monday. For now, he needed to find out what he was capable of.

Excitement suitable dulled, Sam shook his head and crouched on the ground, putting all his weight on his new leg. He took a quick second to make sure that he was properly balanced on the ball of his carbon-fiber foot and took a deep breath.

_Alright, full power jump test... GO!_

A loud bang came from the ground underneath him, and the world around him blurred as he shot upward at an incredible speed. After a few seconds, he started slowing down and finally came to a stop in midair. He quickly slashed the knife against the tree, marketing the apex of his jump. That done, he let himself fall.

Chancing a glance downward, Sam gulped as he realized he was very high in the air.

_I'm not about to kill myself by falling from a height that I jumped, am I?_ Sam thought nervously as he looked down at the rapidly approaching ground. _SHIT! THIS IS BAD!_

Luckily, despite his panic, Sam's training kicked in, and he adjusted himself to reduce the damage from the fall. A few seconds later, he landed with a loud thud.

"OW!" He yelled, grabbing at his left leg. Despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to mitigate the full force of the fall, though it seemed as if only his flesh and blood leg had gotten hurt. He silently checked over his left leg, sighing in defeat as he watched his ankle swell up.

"Damn it... I really did almost manage to kill myself by just jumping straight up in the air... Unbelievable..." Sam said to himself with a sigh.

Deciding to try to look at the positives, Sam gazed up at the tree, trying to find the mark. After a few seconds of searching, he found it.

Just like he'd suspected, his new leg was capable of reaching far greater heights than his old, pre-injury, 30-inch vert. In fact, measuring it in inches now was probably pointless. He'd easily made it over a quarter of the way up the redwood at the apex of his jump, meaning he'd gotten at least 30 to 40 feet in the air. And, glancing down at the deep imprint his foot had left in the dirt, if he jumped off a more sturdy surface that absorbed less of the force, he may even be able to get even higher.

The thought sent a shiver running through his body as the enormity of what he'd just done hit him. Falling damage aside, how many Gs was he putting his body through just to be able to get that high in the first place with one burst? Cold sweat suddenly appeared on his brow as he quickly calculated in his head. He could have killed himself purely from that, most likely. At the very least, it was a miracle that he hadn't at least knocked himself out. Could the magic have done something to strengthen even the non-artificial portion of this body?

Sam shook his head in wonder. _I'm basically a superhuman, aren't I? Granted, only my left arm and right leg are really superhuman, but still. Crazy._

Vinny could not find out about this. No one could. If anyone found out that Star's magic could produce superhumans, the consequences would be unimaginable. A brief flash of Vinny forcing Star to cast the healing spell on a row of amputated soldiers flitted through his mind before he could suppress it.

_I should talk to Star and Marco, make sure that they're on the same page about this. _Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose exhaustedly. _How did my life get so complicated? Just a few weeks ago I was an unemployed teacher spending most days drinking in a bar, now I'm a superhuman about to embark on a conspiracy with a magical princess. So freaking bizarre._

Giving the giant redwood one last glance, Sam put his knife away and grabbed a nearby stick. No way he was going to be able to jog back with his ankle in the shape it was.

Heaving a tired sigh at the thought of what was sure to end up being a long and painful journey, Sam began limping towards town.

* * *

A few hours later, Sam stood in front of Lonny's Bar, idly scanning the surroundings for any signs of surveillance. He didn't spot anyone immediately, but that was to be expected, considering who's team he was dealing with.

The trip down the mountain had turned out to be just as painful and frustrating as he'd anticipated. By the time he'd made it back, over three hours had passed, and he'd barely had the time to shower and get dressed for this meeting. The whole experience had been a great reminder of the result of recklessness. He'd gotten ahead of himself testing his a full-strength jump before trying to come up with a better experiment, and it had cost him.

_I won't make the same mistake with my arm. I guarantee that. When I come up with a good test, I'll make sure to consider every way that it can get me killed. One lesson on the virtues of thorough preparation is enough for the day._

As he reached it, the door to Lonny's Bar opened up, revealing a dapper-looking Vinny. Unlike last time when he'd shown up in a hoody, this time Vinny had reverted back to his typical look of a tailored suit and slicked-back hair.

"Yo, you're late," Vinny said, a sleazy smile at his lips. Sam just stared at him coldly, leading to a small chuckle from Vinny. "Well, what are you waiting out here for? Come on in!" He stood aside and motioned for Sam to follow him in. Sam reluctantly did, generously favoring the cane he'd picked up during his quick trip home.

Unsurprisingly, the bar looked much the same as how he'd left it a few weeks ago. Still, there was something odd about seeing a place you've always visited at night in the middle of the day. The rickety chairs and a dinged up wooden bar that looked so normal at night somehow looked more pathetic than usual under the light of day. And the increased visibility revealed quite a few unsettling stains on the walls and floor that Sam had never noticed before.

As he followed Vinny over to the same seat as the first time they'd met here a few weeks back, Sam couldn't help but idly wonder if the changes he spotted in the bar were really the result of the lighting or a difference in mindset. When he'd been a regular patron at this bar, his life had been at it's worst. Every day, he'd come here to wallow in his misery, just waiting for his pointless existence to come to an end.

Now, he had a purpose. A reason for being. Perhaps the new perspective was giving him a different lens to look through.

A slightly more unsettling thought occurred to him. What if this was a symptom of the magic now coursing through his body. He had noticed strange actions from everyone around Star and, by extension, magic. What if it was beginning to affect him too?

_Would it even be such a bad thing if it was? _Sam thought. _I mean, I feel better now than I have in years. I've taken pills for everything from pain to anxiety, and nothing helped. Even if it's not natural, does it matter?_

Despite the rationalization, Sam still decided to get a thorough workup. If he was being affected, he wanted to know. The only problem was the necessity for secrecy. If he went to some random doctor, he was sure to find himself on the front page of every newspaper in America. Not a good idea.

What he really needed someone that he trusted to keep the results to themselves. A face popped into his head, and he couldn't help but sigh. Amy. She was the only person he knew that fit that criteria, but man did he not want to have to make that call.

_Focus Sam. Dealing with Vinny is going to take all of my attention._

"I had no idea that this place opened before 9pm," Sam said as he ran his fingers over the bar. Not a speck of dust.

"It doesn't. Or at least, it didn't until I bought the place," Vinny said with a smirk. "Figured it was time to invest in real estate around here. Got a feeling that this land'll be worth something someday."

Sam raised his brow at that comment. "What on Earth makes you think that? The location sucks, the building is falling apart, and I'm pretty sure that this whole block is zoned as a historic district, which means you can't even tear it down and start over."

"The last owner thought the same way. That's why it was so cheap!" Vinny rubbed his hands together as a greedy glint appeared in his eyes. "Of course, if you happened to know that the city was about to repeal some of its more draconic historical building protection laws... And you knew that they were gonna start pouring money into a major gentrification project in this neighboorhood, suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea to buy around here, does it?"

"Figures. You never make a losing deal. Isn't that right?" Sam said darkly.

"Oh, come on now, Sammy! It's not like a robbed somebody or something. Lighten up!" Vinny said, wrapping his arms casually around Sam's shoulders and pulled him down onto the stool next to him. "Besides, I'm good to my friends. You know that."

Sam shrugged the arm off his shoulder and eyed him coldly. "What was what happened in Khayda then?"

"That particular job didn't quite go down the way I hoped, I'll admit that," Vinny said with a shrug. "We did get the bad guy, though. It was messy, sure. But in the end, that's all that matters, right?"

"How very utilitarian of you..."

"Utilitarian... Isn't that the 'ends justify the means' philosophy?" Vinny asked, tapping his chin. "In that case, I guess you're right. Results are all that matter. For me... and for you." Vinny leveled a piercing gaze at Sam. "And don't forget it neither. You mess this job up, and maybe the next guy I hire is more of a utilitarian than you are. Who knows what'll happen to the poor princess then."

Sam met Vinny's gaze with a glare of his own as he ground his teeth. "You fucking scumbag."

Vinny sighed and looked away. "Look, Sammy, buddy, I'm not your enemy. I mean, I helped you out when you got back stateside, right? Don't you think you owe me some basic level of trust for that at least?"

"Owe you trust? Are you fucking kidding?" Sam roared, barely able to restrain himself from throttling the arrogant prick. "It was your fault that I even needed help in the first place."

Vinny just sighed again, but before he could say another word, the door to the kitchen opened up, and an absolute behemoth of a man stepped through carrying two plates of food. Bald with a thick black beard, along with rippling muscles bulging out of a far too small black shirt, the man looked like he was made to play the muscle in a B-movie. The only thing that messed up the image was the pink apron that he wore on his chest with the words 'kiss the cook' on them surrounded by an embroidered heart.

The man quickly came over and put two plates of food in front of them.

"Free Range Cajun Chicken sandwich with a side of truffle fries," the man said in a deep voice. "I was told that you liked cajun spices, so I decided to try something new. If you don't like it, I can whip you up one with spicy mayo instead. Just say the word."

"No, this will be fine. Thank you, Dima," Vinny said. Dima nodded and went to sit down at a seat on the other side of the bar, giving them the appearance of privacy. Not that it mattered since Sam was 99% sure that their conversation was being recorded, but he appreciated the thought.

Vinny picked up his sandwich and bit into it, moaning in delight. "Mmmm... What that man manages to do with the crappy resources I gave him to work with is a wonder. I have absolutely no idea where he found the funds to buy truffles." He paused and looked up at Sam. "Try yours. I need a second opinion. If you like it, we'll put it on the new menu."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "You're actually keeping this place open? I figured you'd close the place down until that bill passes."

"And why would I do that?" Vinny said, rolling his eyes. "The place does turn a profit. Not a huge one, but still, it's better than nothing. Besides, even after the renovation, I wasn't planning to change too much. Hipsters eat up the ambiance in old places like this. Once the neighborhood gets nicer, they'll start flocking here by the dozens. You'll see."

"Whatever." Sam looked down at his meal and frowned. "Let's just get down to business. I didn't come here to get lunch. Or chat."

Vinny sighed in mock exasperation. "Fine, have it your way. You really do need to learn how to relax. Enjoy the good things in life." He took another bite, moaning in delight once again before turning back to Sam. "So tell me then. What's the news on the magical princess front."

_Here it is. Time to lie my ass off._

"You've read my report, you know what I've been doing."

"I did, but it was all so... _professional_, you knew? I'd like to hear what you think straight from the source." Vinny said the word 'professional' with such distaste that you'd think the concept had personally insulted him. "Regardless of what you think of me, I value your opinion."

_Yeah, right. More like you don't trust my reports and want to make sure I'm keeping up on my end of the deal. These meetings are all part of the game. To try and force me to make a mistake and reveal if I'm hiding anything. _Not for the first time, Sam suppressed the urge to sigh. _I still don't understand why he wanted me to do this anyway. He knows I've got a soft spot for children and that I would definitely protect Star over his interests. So why me? There are plenty of less principled teachers at Echo Creek Academy that he could have approached to do the same job._

"I've gotten closer to Star but haven't found out much about magic yet. My main takeaways are about Star herself. To be honest, she's a good kid. A bit weird and self-absorbed, but that's about what you'd expect from royalty, right?"

"Sounds like a typical spoiled brat from what I read. Causes trouble all over the place, then gets other people to clean it up," Vinny said with a chuckle. "Remember Farid's kid? I'm imagining her but with ten times the power."

"She's not nearly that bad. Really. She just has an incredible knack for managing to get herself into trouble." Sam paused and looked over at Vinny, who was staring hungrily at his plate of food now that he'd cleared his. Having no intention of eating anything prepared by an associate of Vinny's, Sam pushed it over to him and continued talking. "If anything, I think that any threat would come from the other faction that seems to be fighting Mewni's royalty."

"That Ludo guy, right?" Vinny managed to say between bites. "Your report said that he didn't seem particularly dangerous and that Star's backers seem to feel the same."

"Yeah, the fight between them, while destructive, wasn't deadly. I'm sure your other spies have mentioned Star's spell the other day, right? Well, despite the scale of destruction, somehow, nobody was seriously hurt. I suspect..." Sam slowly trailed off as Vinny stared at him in shock. "What?"

"What spell?" Vinny said, dropping what was left of the sandwich back onto the plate as he stared at Sam venomously. "There was no mention of a large scale destructive spell in your report about their engagements."

Sam blinked in shock. "Uh, pretty sure there was. You know, two days ago? On Friday? The huge explosion in the Diazs' yard?"

Vinny's lips twitched for a second before he managed to hide the shock behind a smirk. For a seasoned spy like Vinny, that kind of show of unintended emotion was about as blatant as it got.

He didn't know. He actually didn't know. But how? The explosion had been massive. Big enough to be visible and probably audible from great distances. Sam hadn't mentioned too many details about the fight with Ludo intentionally, figuring that he'd let Vinny's surveillance team cover it. But was he wrong about them being there after all? He'd asked for Vinny to back off from Star, but he hadn't expected him to actually keep that part up.

It had been for show. A demand for the sake of showing he wasn't all that willing to work for Vinny. Could it have actually born unexpected fruit?

No, that was impossible. Vinny would never truly trust him with this. With anything, really. The only reason that he was using Sam for this in the first place was out of fear of Star's family. There was no chance that he didn't have a backup plan for when Sam went rogue. And yet, he somehow didn't know about something as big as the Turbo Nuclear Blast spell.

"Right, of course," Vinny said, as he picked up the sandwich and started eating it again. "I thought that you were talking about a different incident. So, you were saying? Hard to believe that such a big blast could be non-lethal?"

_He's digging. Or at least he seems to be. It's possible that this is all some kind of weird loyalty test._

"Yeah, it was crazy... That blast of light, I almost felt like I was back at war." Sam didn't have to act as a shiver ran through his body. Even just thinking back to that moment was enough to almost send him into a panic.

Vinny shook his head dramatically. "To be honest, I was a little worried about your PTSD acting up when I heard about it. I'm glad that you came out of it, alright."

Sam frowned in thought. He hadn't really thought about it since that day, but Vinny had brought up a good point. Why hadn't he had a flashback when that explosion went off? He couldn't even watch an action scene in a movie without getting triggered, let alone seeing an explosion live.

Once again, Sam thought back to the mind-numbing effects that he'd seen magic cause in all the people around him. Yet another thing to add to his growing list of reasons to himself checked out by a professional.

"I think that the rainbows and the metric fuckton of insects buzzing around afterward managed to keep me in that moment." Sam shook his head. "It was just so different from the fights I'm used to."

Vinny smirked. "Yeah, that does sound pretty wild. Guess that makes sense."

Sam suppressed a smirk. _No comment about the insects buzzing around, huh? It was butterflies that were left behind by Star's spell. Not exactly the type of insects to buzz. There's no way a smartass like Collins wouldn't take a chance to jab at me for that word choice. _

_He has no idea what happened. He's just digging for info. How is this possible? No, that doesn't matter right now. What I need to do is give him as little information as possible right now. And in my future reports too. Shit. I wish that I hadn't drawn his attention to this in the first place. He'll probably be on the lookout for stuff like this now._

Resisting the urge to shake his head in frustration, Sam focused on the task at hand.

"Destruction aside, I'm honestly really impressed by what Star's magic managed to do to your face," Vinny said, studying the thin white line running down his face. "I almost forgot what you looked like without that scar. Any idea if she can heal the rest of you?"

_Oh, you have no idea..._

Suppressing the urge to laugh, Sam instead tensed his shoulders and stood up straighter. He wanted to project a suppressed excitement and anticipation at the thought of being healed. "Star did tell me about some magic dedicated to healing, but nothing that can grow back limbs." Sam shook his head sadly before letting a small smile appear on his face. "I mentioned in my report that she did manage to heal up a good portion of my visible scar tissue, though. It's mostly cosmetic, but I think I feel a bit better as well. I sent you pictures of all of it."

A greedy glint appeared in Vinny's eyes. "When I saw that part of the report, gotta admit, I was intrigued. Even if the spell is purely cosmetic, that kind of thing is worth a fortune." Vinny laughed gleefully. "Do you know if she can do more than get rid of scar tissue? Like clear up skin or do a nose job or something?"

Sam shrugged. "No idea. I'll try and find out this week. I've finally managed to set up twice weekly tutoring with her starting on tomorrow so I'll have much more one on one contact with her from now on."

"Good. Sounds like your making good progress. Now, let's move on to the real reason that I called you out here." Vinny reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a card. "I need you to meet with this doctor. My bosses are _very _interested in finding out exactly what Star's spell did to your body."

"No. There's no chance in hell I'm letting your people anywhere near me." Sam said, emphatically shaking his head.

Vinny rolled his eyes. "Come on, Sammy! I'm not asking for you to go through an interrogation, just a quick checkup!"

"Hell. No. Like I said, there's no way I'm letting one of your cronies near me. If you want me to get examined, fine. I want to find out what Star's magic did to me too. But we're going to use a neutral third party. Not one of your people."

Vinny just rolled his eyes again and pushed the card into Sam's hand. "Already figured you'd say that. Read the name on the card."

Sam reluctantly did as he was told and felt his blood turn cold. _No... Even he wouldn't..._

"Please, don't bring her into this. She has nothing to do with this," Sam whispered, not able to take his eye off the name on the card.

"Too late. It's already done. Your appointment is next Saturday. You'll probably get a confirmation email later today with the exact time. And hey, at least you don't gotta worry about any bias, right? I'm sure _she _wouldn't do wrong by you." Vinny chuckled and stood up. The sound of his mocking laughter grated on Sam's ears. "It was good seeing you again, Sam. We should do this more often. I'll call next time I'm in the country. See ya!"

With that, Vinny walked out of the room. Dima came over and picked up the empty plates, taking them into the kitchen to clean them, leaving Sam alone with his thoughts. For what must have been at least a good half hour, Sam numbly stared at the card in his hand. To think that Vinny would have the gall to involve her in this...

It wasn't that Sam hadn't expected the request to have his body checked out. That had been expected. He'd even already put a plan into motion to deal with it. But now he needed to change to rethink everything.

Sometimes Sam just didn't understand his games. Why bother with all that talk about them not being enemies if he was going to go and pull something like this. Did he just enjoy toying with people? Was this supposed to be some kind weird power play?

And why even use her in the first place? Sure, it had thrown him off balance, but under most circumstances, this turn of events should be an advantage for Sam. After all, he doubted that she would have any problems lying for him. Of course, he would never get her involved in any of his plots. If she lied for him, and Vinny found out, the reprisal would be swift.

And just like that, it came to him in a flash of inspiration. The reason that he'd chosen her.

_He knows that I'll never hurt her. That's why he chose her. By getting her involved, he ensures my full cooperation. After all, if she reports the wrong thing back to Vinny and it gets found out, they'll kill her. It won't matter whether I tricked her or she voluntarily helped. Our previous relationship will be enough for them to go after her. Shit, that dirtbag is good..._

His fist tightened into a ball as he ground his teeth in impotent rage. Why was it that every time the two of them met, Vinny always came out ahead, and Sam was left feeling like a jackass? Was he just better?

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself to try to relax. No, he wasn't better. He just had a better approach than Sam did. Sam always played defense, reacting to Vinny's plays instead of initiating himself. It was a problem that Vinny himself had warned him about all the time when they'd worked together. So maybe it was time to finally take the advice and make the first move.

Sam pulled his eyes away from the card and put it away. He stepped out of the bar and walked a few blocks away before pulling out a burner phone he'd bought a few days earlier. To be honest, there was probably no point in the burner or moving away from the bar before the call. Neither action would likely amount to much in hiding what he was planning—Vinny was sure to be keeping tabs on all his contacts. But it couldn't hurt to be careful. And if it made Vinny's a bit job harder, all the better.

After quickly typing in a number, he froze, his finger hovering over the call button. As he stared at the glowing numbers on the screen, long-forgotten feelings came rushing back. Was he really going to open up this can of worms? Was it really worth it?

He sighed and let his finger complete its journey. In the end, he'd never had a choice. Vinny couldn't be allowed to know the true power of Star's magic, and there was no one else with the expertise he needed to help him. After a few rings, the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Amy, it's Sam. I need a big favor."


End file.
